Translucent

Meliantha Muliawan is a Jakarta-based artist who creates stunning works of art on resin. Intrigued by the visual distortion that occurs when looking through the translucent material, she had the epiphany to use the material as a canvas. “I was just bored with the normal mediums and wanted to find a new way to approach my art,” she comments. “It’s only been two years since I started working with resin. That’s not that long right?”

When she began experimenting with different mediums, she found herself missing the feeling of working with paper or traditional canvas. In the search for a similar yet different replacement for these familiar mediums, she stumbled across resin. Muliawan refers to resin as a “neutral” material due to its translucency. She considers it to be a highly versatile medium when compared to paper, which is generally only available in white or a solid color. “Resin is clear yet and offers a sense of dimension,” she explains. “It feels like I’m painting on ice cubes, and looking at it after, it’s like my paintings are underwater. But one of my favorite things about working on resin is its interaction with light. It’s quite interesting to see the shadows my art casts.”

While Muliawan is often inspired by random musings and works to directly turn these thoughts into paintings, she admits that, often times, referencing photos or a real-life model is quite helpful in her creation process. “It’s great if I have a reference that I can look at,” she says. “But it’s always more fun for me to try and draw an idea that suddenly pops up in my head.”

As a visual person, she finds herself often associating certain images with different periods in her life. “For example, when I think about my childhood, an image of a spider comes up,” she says with a grin. “Why? It’s because I played Tetris a lot, and the Tetris game cartridge had a picture of a spider on it.”

“Usually, when I start working, I’ll begin by conceptualizing a central theme. Then I’ll envision the images that could work with it, and after, I’ll look at references to finalize the idea. But I feel like my work shouldn’t be obvious – there should be layers that hint at the underlying themes. Going back to my story about the spider, viewers might not understand the full story without me explaining it, but in a weird way, they’re connecting with my memories and feelings.”

While not immediately obvious in her art, Muliawan cites Salvador Dali and Sigmund Freud as two of her biggest influences. “Dali’s paranoiac-critical method and Freudian’s theories helped me grow as an artist. These techniques and concepts helped me add dimensions to my work. They’ve allowed me to not only create an image but craft narratives around my art. It’s difficult for me to properly describe it, but Dali and Freud’s work has really given me a lot of confidence and helped me streamline my thought process.”